Living Without You
by live2rite
Summary: Set after Partings but Lorelai and Christopher never got together after that night. Based on the song Everybody Knows by Trisha Yearwood. Luke/Lorelai. One Shot.


_A.N. I was listening to this song and was completely loved how much it described the town of Stars Hollow so I sat down and wrote my first Gilmore Girls fic. The song is Everybody Knows by Trisha Yearwood. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own it._

_Living Without You_

_Lorelai groaned as the annoyingly shrill ringing phone dragged her from her subconscious. She was lay on her front with her head turned to face the phone and she cracked open her eyes to glare at it, trying to will it to shut up. After two more rings, it went to answer phone and the person hung up before leaving a message. Lorelai sighed in relief and turned her head to face the other way but she had barely shut her eyes when the phone rang again. This time she frowned and reached out to answer the phone._

"'_ello?" she groggily answer._

"_Lorelai? ... Are you still in bed?" her mother asked, "Why it's 10 o'clock on a Friday morning, why aren't you at the inn?"_

"_I own the inn mother, I'm taking the day off" she mumbled._

"_Well, isn't that nice, you can just take the day off and laze around ..." Emily started to rant._

"_Why don't you just tell me why you called mom?" she interrupted, not really in the mood to find amusement in replying with some obscure pop culture reference that her mom would have no clue about._

"_It's about tonight. Do you remember the Cullens?" she asked._

"_No mom"_

"_Of course you do! Remember the summer we dragged you to England to visit your Grandmother and you got so sick you couldn't actually visit so you spent practically the entire time in the hotel room and we had guests one night. Patricia gave you that charming doll as a get well gift" she reminded her._

"_Sure mom, I remember that people that I barely met the time I was ill" Lorelai replied sarcastically._

"_Well there's no need to take that tone" Emily admonished before she continued, "Well anyway, they're in town and they're only here for the weekend and since you and Rory will be here tonight we invited them here this evening for dinner ... and their son, Alex. He's about your age"_

_Lorelai would have laughed if she could have found the energy. "Mom you are not setting me up, I'll be there tonight as per usual but I am not playing nice if you try to set me up with him" she warned._

"_Why on earth not? He's a nice young man" she responded indignantly._

"_Oh really? And what exactly do you know about him?" she challenged._

"_Only that he's a surgeon and went to Oxford" Emily supplied._

"_So you basically know nothing about him" Lorelai read between the lines._

"_Lorelai Gilmore, you are not going to sit around and mope after that man" she ordered._

"_Mother I'm hanging up now and I mean what I say about not setting me up, we'll see you this evening" with that she hung up the phone and sat up in bed. She might as well go to work, she wasn't getting back to sleep and she had nothing better to do._

_**Morning number 32 waking up without you  
Mama's on the telephone  
She says she's got a plan  
She knows a nice young man  
Honey if I come back home  
**_

_The journey through Stars Hollow these days was perilous. Every where she turned she still felt like people were staring at her and gossiping behind their hands about what happened between her and Luke. Nobody except her, Luke and Rory knew the whole truth, and Christopher of course, but they hadn't spoken since the phone call he made to her later that day._

"Lor" He started, "what's going on?"

"I'm sorry Chris, I just don't want to be with you, I needed comfort and I came to you, I shouldn't have but I did. I think we should stop seeing each other in any other capacity than talking about Rory"

"But why?" he asked, his voice angry over the phone, "I don't understand, I thought you and the diner guy were over?"

"We are, thanks to me but I can't be with you anymore, we just hurt each other over and over. I do love you but this has to be the end" she almost choked, trying to hold back the tears. There was a long pause on the other end on the line.

"Is this definitely what you want?" he whispered.

"Yes" she whispered back.

"Bye Lorelai" he said calmly and the next thing she heard was the dial tone.

_Before this had happened, she had never thought that she would feel so ... relieved to know for sure that she would never have to see Christopher for an un-Rory related issue. Yes, she would talk to him when it was Rory's graduation and wedding and if Rory had kids, their birthdays but no longer would they meet up and talk about their lives, there was just no need anymore._

_  
__**Everybody knows, everybody knows  
Everybody knows what to do about my misery  
Everybody but me  
**_

_When she arrived at the inn she made a beeline for the coffee in the kitchen. Sookie and Michel were already in there and they appeared to be in the middle of a very serious hushed conversation that halted the moment she entered the room._

"_Lorelai!" Sookie exclaimed, "I thought you had the day off?"_

"_I had a phone call from the wicked witch of the Connecticut state" she murmered, ignoring the fact that they were obviously talking about her, hoping they would just leave it be. No such luck of course._

"_So ... why did you take the day off?" Michel asked, sounding polite, which automatically put Lorelai's guard up._

"_Just needed some time" she answered vaguely as she grabbed a cup and poured some freash coffee in it._

"_For what?" Sookie asked as she chopped some kind of vegetable._

_Lorelai sighed, "Just ask me what you want to know?" she practically growled out._

"_Why did you and Luke split up, it seemed like everything was going well and then you had the melt down about the wedding and Luke not letting you in. Did he not tell you about something else?" Sookie asked._

"_April's mom didn't want me in her life in case things between me and Luke went bad and she had got attached to me ..." Lorelai started._

"_And he didn't back you up? That jerk!" Sookie exclaimed, "I should just go over there and ... argh!" _

"_Sookie, he didn't ..." Lorelai tried again to explain._

"_Exactly! He didn't!" she interrupted again. Lorelai sighed and tuned out Sookie's ranting as she exited the kitchen. Having Sookie call Luke a jerk was not helping._

_  
__**Well all the girls at work say just forget the jerk  
I feel better now**_

_When she got back to the front desk Reverend Archie was waiting for her. She smiled and stepped up to the desk._

"_What can I do for you today Reverend?" she tried to sound happy, but the talk from the kitchen was still bothering her._

"_Lorelai, good morning to you. I've come to make a reservation for a friend of mine. Reverend Tom who works in a small town called Ralley, just north of San Francisco is coming for a visit and I'm afraid that with the rummage sale being based at the rectory this year I simply do not have the space to offer him a place to sleep, do you have a room for tomorrow night, I'm sorry about the short notice, he booked online and the Cheshire Cat bed and breakfast have double booked" he explained._

"_Well let me have a look" she said and quickly checked the bookings, "Yes it looks like we can squeeze Reverend Tom in" she forced another smile in his direction._

"_Excellent, thank you very much Lorelai" he paused before speaking again, "How are you doing? Are you holding up ok?" he asked pleasantly._

"_Yes I'm fine" she said flatly, keeping the forced smile on her face. The reverend seemed to realise this and smiled softly._

"_Well my prayers are with you my dear, that's all you need" he told her before turning and walking away. Great, yet another person who thinks he knows what's best for me, she thought glumly before draining her cup of coffee and braving the kitchen for another. She would feel so much better if she herself knew exactly what it was she wanted._

_  
__**Even my preacher cares, said all I need is prayer  
And everything will just work out**_

Everybody knows, everybody knows  
Everybody knows what to do about my misery  
Everybody but me

Everybody knows, everybody knows  
Everybody knows what to do about my misery  
Yeah everybody but me  


_She couldn't take standing around the inn, she was starting to scare her staff again, like she had when she and Rory didn't talk much that summer of the Dean fiasco so she went home early. She walked in her empty house and dropped her purse on the table before heading for the kitchen. She grabbed the gin from the fridge with the intent of making a martini but decided against that the minute her hand hit the bottle. Instead she saw the block of chocolate that Rory had given to her. It was Cadbury's chocolate from Logan's going away party. She grabbed one of the bars and walked into the front room as she snapped off the first piece. She popped it into her mouth as she sat down on the sofa and spied last months magazine that she still hadn't read and picked it up before bring her feet up to lie in front of her. She didn't know how long she had stayed sitting there for but the next thing she knew, the front door was opening and Rory called out for her as she walked in._

"_In here" she called out in reply._

"_Did you get the 'we're having company' call from grandma today too?" she asked as she was walking into the room._

"_Yeah, sounds like its gonna be fun" she commented as she flipped the page and Rory came to stand in front of her._

"_Mom, you're not ready?" Rory exclaimed, "We have to leave in ten minutes, now move your butt upstairs and put your company clothes on, otherwise that's all we'll here tonight" she told her as she grabbed her mom's arm and tugged her up from the sofa and started shooing her up the stairs._

_  
__**Well I don't want a shrink  
Don't even want a drink  
Give me some chocolate and a magazine**_

_They arrived for dinner just in time and quickly made their way into the lounge for drinks._

"_Well here they are!" Richard exclaimed pleasantly at the sight of his daughter and granddaughter, "Lorelai, Rory, what can I get you to drink?"_

"_Martini please dad" Lorelai replied as she sat down._

"_Soda please, grandpa" Rory said as she sat next to her mom._

"_So Lorelai, did you enjoy your day off?" Emily asked in a tone that both girls recognised as a disapproving one._

"_Yes mom I did" she smiled, refusing to rise to the bait._

"_God knows why you're moping around the house, you'd think that the diner man was God's gift or something, I really don't ..."_

"_Mother!" She snapped, "Please I really do not want to talk about Luke, but I will say this, I love him and how I chose to live with that feeling is my business". There was silence as this sunk in and Rory decided to break it by striking up a conversation with Richard over her the classes she was going to chose for her last year at Yale. For the rest of the evening, Lorelai was uncharacteristically quiet, she barely spoke a word at all and on the drive home, Rory cast her worried glances. She knew her mom wasn't over Luke, she knew that she practically hated herself for going to Christopher and for how it hurt Luke but she didn't know what to say to help._

"_Soo ..." she started, "How's things at the inn?" she asked._

"_Good" Lorelai answered and tried to smile._

"_Good, that's ... good" Rory grimaced and the car fell back into silence._

_  
__**I'll learn to live without you  
Don't want to talk about you  
But I can't even walk down the street  
**_

_It was late. Lorelai didn't know exactly how late it was because she couldn't be bothered to turn her head to look at the alarm clock. She stood up and quickly put on her shoes. She was going to go for a walk. It was so late that no one would be around and staring at her, which was what she hated right now. She crept out of the house and in a few minutes she was walking into the town square. She stared around. It was always so peaceful in the square especially late at night. She walked around the square once, avoiding looking at Luke's Diner as she passed and then made her way to the Gazebo only to pause in her tracks ... Luke was sitting on the bench staring at his diner and obviously upset about something. She stood shock still and as she made the decision to turn and walk away she tripped on the step as she was turning, twisting her ankle and landing on her backside._

"_Ow!" she exclaimed, then quickly spun her head around to see that Luke was staring at her._

"_Lorelai?" he questioned, "What are you doing here?"_

"_I'm sorry" she blurted out, "I'll leave you alone" she tried to get up but her ankle was worse than she thought and she fell back down. Luke was suddenly at her side, helping her to stand. "Thanks" she mumbled and she looped her arm around his shoulders to steady herself. He put his arm around her waist which pulled her closer to him. She shivered at their proximately and tried to avoid looking at him._

"_Come on, I'll take you home" he told her calmly and they started to walk slowly to his truck when he suddenly spoke again, "I have to know why" he whispered. She looked at him in surprise and opened her mouth to answer when she realised that all the reasons she had were stupid._

"_I ... I don't honestly know. We were over, or I thought we were and I just ... I needed someone to turn to that wouldn't judge or try to _do_ anything, someone who would just listen ... Christopher just listened, there was too much alcohol and ... it meant nothing at all and it wasn't until the next day I actually realised how much it would hurt you and I'm sorry about that, I really am"_

_By this time they had reached the truck and Luke opened the door to let Lorelai in. _

_**  
Everybody knows, everybody knows  
Everybody knows what to do about my misery  
Everybody but me**_

_She sat in silence watching Luke as he drove her back to her house and then he helped her out of the truck and to her front door._

"_Are you going to say anything?" she whispered. Luke looked up at Lorelai and softly smiled._

"_There's not much more to say" he shrugged and waved a little as he started to walk away._

"_I only ever loved you" she called after him. He stopped dead and turned back to face her._

"_I know" he said, "But you didn't fight for us" _

"_Neither did you" she answered. They regarded each other closely for a few seconds before Lorelai spoke again. "Can we try?" she asked, "Can we?" _

_There was another pause, this one the longest of the evening. "I ... If we do this, we do this. We don't mess around anymore, we're together, right?" he asked._

"_Yes, absolutely yes" she smiled, a tear falling down her cheek. He reached for her and wiped the tear from her cheek._

"_Come on, I'll get you up the stairs before I leave" he smiled._

"_Thank you"_

"_You're welcome"_

_The End._

_A.N. I hope you liked this :D please review, thanks Nicki xoxo_


End file.
